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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (28 November) . . Page.. 3341 ..

My amendments 18 and 19 relate to the same issue, which is how this legislation is administered. In the bill, the registrar is required to be a public servant, but deputy registrars and authorised officers, the people who go out and catch the animals and investigate complaints, do not have to be public servants but can be anyone appointed by the chief executive of the Department of Urban Services.

The explanatory memorandum states that this clause is to allow the domestic animal control services to be outsourced. The Greens have a big problem with the Liberal outsourcing agenda under the guise of the purchaser/provider model and competition policy. We believe that this policy approach has some major flaws, in that it removes valuable corporate memory, loyalty and expertise from within the public sector and replaces the objective of serving the public with cost minimisation and profit maximisation.

The Greens believe that regulatory functions should remain in government hands and not be subject to the profit motive. This issue has been debated many times in this Assembly in different contexts, and it appears that we have to fight this outsourcing agenda again. I am therefore proposing that the deputy registrars and authorised officers must be public servants.

MR CORBELL (5.37): The Labor Party will be supporting this amendment. I understand from our discussion with the minister earlier that some activities currently performed by the RSPCA could potentially be affected by this amendment. Nevertheless, the Labor Party has a strong position in relation to outsourcing of what it believes to be key government functions. I think most people in the community would regard the function outlined in this bill as a core function of government and not one that should be subject to outsourcing.

If the minister raises concerns about functions or activities that are performed by the RSPCA on behalf of the registrar, then I would encourage the government to introduce an amendment to deal with that position, but the Labor Party is not prepared to support amendments that pave the way for the outsourcing of this government service.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (5.38): It is curious, for instance, that the people who look after our children do not all have to be public servants, yet the people who have to look after and police animal welfare do. We believe it is important that we have that flexibility and that, should Domestic Animal Services be market tested, the registrar has the ability to empower deputy registrars. The important thing to remember is that the registrar will always be a public servant. The deputy registrars will be able to exercise their powers only at the discretion of the registrar and at the registrar's direction. Clause 122(2) clarifies that. The authorised officers are subject to the direction of the registrar-that is covered by clause 123(2)-and there will be adequate safeguards on the provision of those functions.

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